Neuroscientists Say No to Compassion

(Note: Originally Posted 10-20-05)

The Dalai Lama is scheduled to speak next month at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, but, according to a New York Times article, 544 brain researchers signed a petition urging the society to cancel the lecture.

The Dalai Lama’s appearance comes in connection with his collaboration on experiments involving Buddhist monks using meditation techniques to bring about changes in the brain. This venture arose out of the Mind and Life conferences in which the Dalai Lama met, over a period of years, with western scientists for an informal exchange of ideas. (Alan Wallace, whose books are referenced on this site, played a role in those conferences.)

Anyone familiar with Buddhism knows Buddhist practitioners, over the past two thousand years, have conducted the world’s most in-depth research into consciousness, gaining them valuable insights they can share with the western scientific establishment which has only recently undertaken the study of consciousness.

So why do neuroscientists want the Dalai Lama banned from their annual meeting? One petition-signer stated, “No opportunity should be given to anybody to use neuroscience for supporting transcendent views of the world." The materialistic bias of the scientific establishment again makes an ugly appearance.

What do the petition signers fear?

The Tibetan monks taking part in the experiment created observable effects on the brain; their work, as it is expanded and becomes properly understood, turns conventional western thinking upside down. Using Buddhist techniques, it can be shown that the mind—which is not the brain—causes observable effects on the brain. One’s state of consciousness, controlled through specific exercises, determines the state of the brain.

Consciousness, it turns out, IS a “transcendent view” and not a mere epiphenomenon of the brain.

The Times article reports, “…some investigators who plan to attend the neuroscience meetings are trying to find the neural traces of consciousness itself, a notoriously disorienting quest that has led more than one enterprising scientist into a philosophical fog.” Anyone familiar with the subject understands this is a gross understatement. The quest is not only disorienting, it is an impossible quest, a fool’s errand.

And that, it appears, is precisely what the neuroscientists do not want to learn. They are convinced they stand at the threshold of greatness. For example, the same petitioner who objected to providing a platform for transcendent views stated, “Neuroscience more than other disciplines is the science at the interface between modern philosophy and science.” One can only imagine the chagrin that awaits such scientists when it is shown the important interface belongs to the Tibetan spiritual leader who understands consciousness, while neuroscientists will ultimately be relegated to the role of mechanics who attend to structure.

In order to protect the lie that neuroscience has a grasp on consciousness or ever will, such neuroscientists will deny anyone, including the Dalai Lama, a platform on which to present evidence that consciousness is a transcendent phenomenon.

Will the Dalai Lama treat the neuroscientists to a healthy helping of the truth? Will he expose their folly and put neuroscience in the proper perspective? There’s little chance that will occur. That is not how the spiritual leader conducts business.

If one reads the Mind and Life dialogues, one finds the Dalai Lama cares little for being an authority. He cares little for scientific acclaim. He is not seeking a Nobel Prize in neuroscience. The Dalai Lama facilitates discovery. He allows others to discover truths he has long known, as though they are discovering them for the first time.

The Dalai Lama will not present himself as deserving acclaim and recognition. Instead, he will encourage those in attendance to discover that which he already knows but is too humble to claim.

How will the spiritual leader deal with the bias and contempt and dislike expressed through the petition? With compassion and loving-kindness. The Dalai Lama will demonstrate he controls his state of mind. In spite of the deeply-engrained bias, some of those in attendance will come away understanding they have encountered a transcendent presence.

Tags: Dalai Lama, neuroscience, Buddhist, Buddhism, mind, scientists, science, consciousness, spiritual, transcendent